Lost Planet 2 (PC) Review - PAGE 1

Four years ago Capcom released Lost Planet: Extreme Condition, following it up a year later with an expanded edition called Lost Planet Colonies. Lost Planet was a heavily action-oriented TPS, and saw you trapped on a planet ridden by snow, ice, and gigantic bug-like creatures called Akrid.

As a new property, it was surprisingly well-received critically and commercially, and like some other reviewers, I would also compare the gameplay in some senses to classic franchises like Mega Man, though it's very much its own beast, too.

With Lost Planet 2 finally here on PC, I can say Capcom has expanded and improved on the original in every way I can think of, and also have done a marvelous job taking care of PC gamers.

As I've noted before, the game is built on the MT Framework engine, which is simply marvelous for building proper PC versions, with little or no effect from the console releases. I can't be sure, but it appears as with Street Fighter IV, this was built on PC, ported to consoles, and then developed and polished for a PC release, and is as of high quality as everything else the studio has released these past few years -- actually, even moreso.

Whatever the case, it feels like a PC game, and one that takes full advantage of the latest hardware and technology. Many already know Lost Planet 2 utilizes DirectX 11 and its famed ComputeShader and tessellation features (among others) for more realistic rendering and more detailed bosses -- these can be set manually in the config file, and/or in the options menu (settings are low, medium, and high).

On my high-end rig (overclocked 1GB 5770, 4GB 1333mhz DDR3 RAM, X6 2.8ghz 1055T CPU), with mostly max settings the game still managed to stress the system to its limits, but I found turning off tessellation brought mostly consistent and quite playable framerates (roughly 40 FPS -- about all you really need in this case). See our forums here for the tweak and also recommended control settings -- the default ones are a little whack.

Suffice it to say, if you want something to show off that looks huge, absolutely gorgeous, and will tax even your new pricey rig, this is definitely the game to do it. On the other hand, I've also previously tested it on a low-mid range rig (see the link above), and managed to push great framerates, turning some of the fancy settings off or down without too much impact -- it's remarkably well-optimized.

Speaking of huge -- the bosses in this game actually made me think of upgrading my monitor a few times. I'm currently running a 22'' at 1680x1050 resolution, and that wasn't nearly big enough to accommodate them. If you're one of those enthusiasts with a 30'' or 40'' or multi-monitor setup -- Lost Planet 2 will make full use of it, and probably then some.

Aside from that there's 3D Vision and 3D Vision Surround Support (hopefully we see Eyefinity support in the future), and options for AA, rendering, textures, Motion Blur, and Shadows.

As for gameplay, I found with Lost Planet I could never fully enjoy myself because I was constantly thinking about the thermal energy (T-ENG) mechanic -- this was a twist in that you had to rely on orange goo to survive, which could be had by exploding barrels and drums or Akrid, or activating data posts. Once your T-ENG hit zero, your life began to drain, which of course could quickly lead to death. In the sequel, they've seriously toned down the need to rely on it so it functions more as one mechanic in a mix of many, and it's definitely for the better. In fact, I very rarely found myself thinking about it, except when I had to use the Harmonizer -- which sacrifices T-ENG -- to heal.

Another major change is the emphasis on co-op, which has proven to be a very wise choice. The campaign supports four-player, and damn is it ever fun. As one Steam user so aptly puts it, "I never played [Lost Planet], so I wasn't expecting literally every second everything on screen is exploding. It's a lot of fun though. Played co-op for six hours straight. I think I'm about to have a seizure now."

Instead of playing a fixed character this time around, you play one of four players part of a larger faction. You can certainly play through solo if you like (with a squad or alone), and you'll have about as much fun as you did last time, but the experience is about twice as enjoyable with voice chat and some proper partners, especially a group of friends. Drop-in co-op play could've made the experience even better, but the queue system works reasonably well, too (essentially, you wait for players to finish up a mission then join them on the next one, or they wait for you). Your best bet is to find a good group and stick with them for a few chapters and do that a few times until you're done. It must also be noted Capcom has graciously offered up LAN play for your pleasure.